Welcome to our book study of The Reading Strategies Book: Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Readers by Jennifer Serravallo! I am joining forces with some other fabulous teacher bloggers to discuss the reading strategies we come across in this AMAZING professional text! If you missed my first post about this book study, you can find it here, along with a suggested way to set up your book for easy reference.
You can also find my thoughts and ideas on other goals in this book below:
You can also find my thoughts and ideas on other goals in this book below:
Goal 1: Supporting Pre-Emergent and Emergent Readers
Goal 2: Reading Engagement
Goal 3: Supporting Print Work
Goal 4: Fluency
Goal 5: Supporting Comprehension in Fiction Main Idea and Plot
Goal 6: Supporting Comprehension in Fiction Characters
Goal 7: Supporting Comprehension in Fiction Theme
Goal 8: Supporting Comprehension in Non-Fiction - Main Idea
Goal 9: Supporting Comprehension in Non-Fiction - Key Details
This week, my friend, Kristin Muse from Samson's Shoppe is writing a guest post for me.
Here are her thoughts:
Supporting Comprehension in Nonfiction
Getting the Most from Text Features
This goal is important to young readers because
text features are a big part of reading nonfiction text. Text features help
students to read, navigate and understand what they are reading. Text features
help to support the main idea of the text by including relevant information,
adding to the ideas or helping students navigate through the reading. There are
numerous types of text features; graphs, illustrations, diagrams, charts, maps,
photographs just to name a few. Many teachers already understand the importance
of text features but studies show that students need to do more than simply
identify the feature. Students need to be taught how to use these features to
gain more information. Students should be able to identify the feature but more
importantly, be able to understand the purpose and function of the text
feature.
Determining if This is the Right Goal for Your
Students:
Ways to determine if this is the right goal for
your students include:
ü What
level are your students reading on?
o
Below level N – text features support
the main idea
o
At level O – text features begin to
give additional information
o
At level Q – text features become more
heavy; they may include their own main ideas and details
o
At level U – readers need to be able
to explain how the text feature relates to the main text
ü How
to assess?
o
Ask questions when conferencing
o
Stop and jot
o
Respond to questions
o
Look at student writing
o
Listen to student conversations
ü Gauge
where your students are from your assessment. Think about their reading level
and what they can/cannot do. Is the student
o
Ignoring the text features?
o
Able to identify the text feature?
o
Able to identify and name its purpose?
o
Able to explain what the feature is
teaching?
o
Able to make connections between the
meaning of the text feature and the text?
Focus Strategy 1: Cover Up Then Zoom In
One
strategy Serravallo discusses in this chapter is applicable to all levels of
readers. Students use a sticky note to cover an image on the page. After
reading the text on the page, they think to themselves, “What is this teaching
me so far?” After determining their new knowledge, students’ undercover the
sticky note and then ask themselves, “What new information am I gaining from
this feature?” I like this strategy because it builds upon students’ ability to
question and determine importance.
Focus Strategy 2: Bold Words Signal Importance
This strategy is
appropriate for reading levels F-Z+. Students look at the bold word to see if
they already know it. If they don’t they try to use context clues to determine
the meaning. Once they have a definition they review the sentence again and
explain the fact with a new understanding of the word. This strategy helps
students to synthesize information and monitor for meaning. Here is a sample Anchor Chart from Life in 4B
Focus Strategy 3: Why a Visual
This strategy works best with
students at reading levels G-Z+. When students encounter a visual, they stop
and think, “What information is this visual giving me? Why is it important to
the information in this section?” Some prompts that you can give your students
to assess this strategy are:
· What
did you learn from the picture?
· Why
did the author choose to put this picture on this page?
· What
can you learn from this?
This book has so much information and is a great
read for any teacher, at any stage in your career. Please review the book on
your own for many more strategies to use with your readers.
Remember, we are only picking and choosing some of the strategies to share with you - there are so many more great ones in this section as well as the rest of the book!
If you would like to purchase the book mentioned above, you can find it here.
Other books by this author that I LOVE!
This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog. All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.
If you would like to link up your own blog posts about this book, feel free to do so in the linky below!
